Category Archives: News

Drug Cartels and Gangs more often than not live by strict codes. If these groups were to strictly enforce a code against the use of fentanyl it would save lives AND make them more money. Gangs can’t make a profit off of people that are now dead because of their product and would avoid police by doing so. By banning the cutting of products with fentanyl in your groups; you will avoid bad publicity, retaliation for deaths as well as the police.

2. Drug Testing Kits

I’ve seen several documentaries over the past years of people creating stands at concerts so that people may test their drugs before use; non for profit agencies spreading awareness and substance harm reduction. If we were to implicate this same ideology in our vulnerable neighbourhoods it would at least give people a chance to know what they are about to take. We need to make these tests free and largely available to the public.

3. Chinese Import of Fentanyl

Large amounts of the fentanyl found in Canada can be traced back to chinese manufacturing and shipping. Canadian Law Enforcement and International leaders need to crack down on the Chinese imports and come down HARD. Our children are dying here and world needs to take notes on the big players; wheeling and dealing with the lives at risk. Who is at the top of the fentanyl food chain? And cut it off at the head.

4. The Pill Press

Banning the sale, shipping and distribution of the pill press may not solve this issue but it would be a big step in the right direction. The current premier of British Columbia Christy Clark did not want the pill press banned. We should write our leaders and subject them to strong disapproval of how they are handling this crisis. Shame on you Christy Clark.

5. Publicity

The more warnings in media about drug sources and drug awareness would make people think twice about what they put in their body; The Canadian government needs to spend money promoting drug awareness in Public places. In the poor neighbourhoods I go through the most prevalent advertisement is Alcohol. BY FAR. I am not impressed and would rather see a more productive approach to what is subjected to our eyes and our minds.

6. Drug Education

Education on all drugs; being so prevalent in todays society perhaps should be a year around curriculum. This curriculum should be designed and maintained / up-kept on a regular basis to save the lives of this generation and generations to come in a pill filled society. Abstinence of drugs in our schools has never been successful and perhaps harm reduction is a proven tactic to prevent addiction / drug related deaths and increase treatment.

7. In-Sites

Vancouver was one of the first ( If not the first ) In the world to implement safe injection sites. A place where drug users can be assisted / monitored / watched while they inject and can stay in the facility while they are high. It was implemented in order to curb an H.I.V. epidemic in our community which was ranked one of the worst per capita in the world. AND IT WORKED. It saved thousands of lives and new In-Sites are in the works.

8. Legalization of drugs.

The war on drugs did not work. It created a systematic enslavement and increased addiction and poverty in specific communities.

Lets Just BE REALISTIC. And follow suite accordingly giving us a standardized use of drugs before this gets out of control… Oh wait it already is

Please share this post / comment your thoughts on this subject for discussion.

In a collaboration for the ages, ‘powwow step’ collective A Tribe Called Red combines indigenous singing and EDM with poetry by AFROPUNK alum Saul Williams for an unbelievable call to action for #NoDAPL

What’s the link between household brands Head & Shoulders, Covergirl, and Gillette?

Modern slavery.

The brands’ parent company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), purchases conflict palm oil from the world’s largest palm oil plantation operator, Malaysian company Felda Global Ventures (Felda). Felda deals in the human trafficking of its plantation workers, confiscating close to 30,000 passports, and still works with labor contractors and recruiters who charge enormous fees to trafficked foreign workers.

Plantation workers are trapped in modern day slavery, all to produce palm oil that ends up in P&G products. The multinational consumer goods company is well aware of the problem, and yet still buys conflict palm oil from its joint venture partner Felda.

P&G is getting ready to publish its 2016 sustainability progress report, and the company knows that customers and investors are watching. Now’s the perfect moment to force P&G to pressure its supplier and business partner to do the right thing and stop this human catastrophe. Felda can’t afford to lose a partner like P&G.

Procter & Gamble can’t pretend to ignore the plantation workers’ ordeal. A 2015 Wall Street Journal article documented the human rights violations happening in Felda palm oil plantations. Because they’re complicit, companies like Procter & Gamble are responsible for the plight of modern slaves either working on palm oil plantations or dying on their way there. Last year, Thai and Malaysian police found nearly 150 bodies of people thought to have died in human traffickers’ camps at the border.

Mohammad Rubel, who was smuggled into Malaysia by traffickers and was later held captive in a jungle camp, says he worked on a palm plantation for six months without receiving a salary. Muhi, another worker, says that “there is no escape,” and that Felda contractors “bring policemen and threaten to send us to jail.” In Malaysia illegally and without passports, these workers are trapped for the sake of cheap palm oil.

Over the past two years, we pushed companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks coffee to adopt zero deforestation palm oil policies. We’ve also focused our efforts on the improvement of human and workers’ rights in the palm oil sector with campaigns targeting PepsiCo and Unilever. It’s time for Procter & Gamble to stand by its principles and save close to 30,000 palm oil workers from modern slavery.

Walmart insider says ‘heartbreaking’ amount of food dumped in trash
Retailer says discarded items are unsafe to eat, but ex-worker says they still looked good
Daniel Schoeler says Walmart workers tossed what appeared to be perfectly good food into trash compactors on almost every shift he worked. (Erica Johnson/CBC)
A former worker at almost a dozen Walmart stores in the Vancouver area is speaking out about what he calls “disturbing” food waste at the big retailer.

Daniel Schoeler says on every shift at almost every store, he saw loads of what appeared to be perfectly good food dumped in the trash, even though Walmart says it only discards inedible food.

“It’s heartbreaking when you go home at the end of the day, to see that much food get thrown out,” Schoeler told Go Public.

“They just toss it freely.”

For six years, Schoeler worked for a company contracted by Walmart to assemble bikes, patio furniture and other products in the back of Walmart stores. He left last spring.

He reels off a grocery list of items he says he regularly saw tossed in the trash compactor: tubs of margarine, yogurt and sour cream, bags of apples and potatoes, watermelons, cottage cheese, cans of food with expiry dates that hadn’t passed, cheese, butter and baked goods.

Jenny Rustemeyer
Jenny Rustemeyer says she and Grant Baldwin were able to bring home about $20,000 worth of dumpster food in six months, ‘and that is just the smallest portion of what we found in the dumpsters.’ (Jenny Rustemeyer)
CBC Marketplace has launched a national investigation and learned of large amounts of waste at other Walmart stores across the country. In the Toronto area, they repeatedly found outdoor garbage bins piled high with everything from produce to baked goods, frozen foods, meat and dairy products.

The Marketplace full investigation airs Friday, Oct. 28.

“It bothers me a tremendous amount,” says Schoeler, who says he only felt he could speak out after he quit.

“So many low-income people shop at Walmart. They’re scraping to buy this stuff, yet Walmart is just throwing it out the back door.”

Walmart responds

When Go Public contacted Walmart for comment, spokesperson Alex Roberton said he couldn’t discuss specifics, but said the giant retailer is committed to reducing food waste.

“There’s an assumption that retailers don’t care,” said Roberton.

“But retailers do care. It costs a lot of money to deal with waste, so it’s not in a retailer’s interest to just throw stuff out.”

Roberton said Walmart has teamed up with many organizations such as food banks to donate unsold food, and food is only discarded when it’s deemed unsafe to eat.

He could not address reports from Walmart insiders who told CBC they were instructed to throw away food if it looked imperfect or was close to an expired best-before date, or if shelf space was needed.

Media placeholderPlay Media
Walmart food waste 2:03
A professor of food studies at the University of British Columbia says most retailers throw out food because it’s cheaper than finding it a new home.

“It’s much easier, much more cost-efficient to not pay your workers to separate food — to change their habits of disposing — to a system that is more responsible,” says Will Valley, who teaches about food systems and sustainability.

“It’s the cost of business these days in retail environments,” he says. When consumers expect a variety of convenient, cheap food, there will be waste.

Saw no recycling

Schoeler was bothered by more than food waste. He says none of the food was separated from its packaging before getting tossed in the trash compactor.

“Everything that gets thrown out, gets thrown out in its package,” he says — aside from milk, which was poured out before the containers got tossed.

“There was zero recycling, except for cardboard boxes, where they can make money,” says Schoeler.

Will Valley
‘It’s much easier, much more cost-efficient to not pay your workers to separate food,’ says Will Valley, a University of British Columbia professor of food studies. (Tristan Le Rudulier/CBC)
Corporations like Walmart have to follow the same recycling regulations as residences in Vancouver. Food waste must be separated from packaging.

But waste regulators allow loads of garbage to have 25 per cent of food waste — including its packaging — mixed in with other trash.

A committee of local politicians in Metro Vancouver has recommended that be reduced to five per cent as of Jan. 1, 2017.

Even though Walmart is operating within waste bylaws, longtime recycling advocate Helen Spiegelman says the corporate giant should do more.

“It’s disappointing,” says Spiegelman, former executive director of the Recycling Council of British Columbia.

‘Walmart damn well should have the wherewithal to fix these problems.’
— Helen Spiegelman, recycling advocate
“Walmart damn well should have the wherewithal to fix these problems. … It’s a huge amount of laziness.”

Spiegelman says what’s needed is a culture shift, where food waste and a lack of recycling become “sinful.”

Food waste is a large part of landfills, which emit methane, the second largest contributor to climate change, following carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Food waste a ‘hidden secret’

Jenny Rustemeyer doesn’t believe most food thrown out by major retailers is unsafe to eat.

The Vancouver filmmaker co-produced Just Eat It, a documentary on food waste that featured Rustemeyer and her partner Grant Baldwin living for six months on food from store dumpsters.

“We took photos of everything that we found … from dairy to meat, fish, pasta and rice, even maple syrup,” she says.

Jenny Rustemeyer
Jenny Rustemeyer and her partner survived for six months on food pulled from dumpsters. The Vancouver filmmaker co-produced Just Eat It, a documentary on food waste. (CBC)
“We were able to bring home about $20,000 worth of food in six months and that is just the smallest portion of what we found in the dumpsters.”

“Not everything we found was edible, but everything we took home was … perfectly fine to eat.”

Racism may well be the biggest crime in the criminal legal system. If present trends continue, 1 of every 4 African American males born this decade can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, despite the fact that the Census Bureau reports that the U.S. is 13 percent Black, 61 percent white and 17 percent Latino.

When Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954, about 100,000 African Americans were in prison. Now there are about 800,000 African Americans in jails and prisons: 538,000 in prisons, and over 263,000 in local jails. Black men are nearly 6 times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Hispanic men are 2.3 times as likely, according to the Sentencing Project.

Why? Because our country has dramatically expanded our jails and prisons and there is deep racism built into every step of the criminal legal system. Some think the criminal legal system has big problems that need to be reformed. Others think the racism in the criminal legal system is helping it operate exactly as it has been designed to incarcerate as many black and brown people as possible.

Here are 18 examples of racism in parts of different stages of the system. Taken together, the racism in each of these steps accelerates the process of incarceration of African American and Latino males. Together, they demonstrate that racism may well be the biggest crime in the criminal legal system.

1. Police Stops

Who is stopped by the police, either in cars or on foot, continues to be highly racialized as proof of racial profiling continues to accumulate. University of Kansas professors found the police conducted investigatory stops of African American males at twice the rate of whites. A black man in Kansas City, 25 or younger, has a 28 percent chance of being stopped, while a similar white male has only a 12 percent chance.

In New York City, police continue to stop Black and Hispanics at rates far higher than whites even though they are stopping many less people due to a successful civil rights federal court challenge by the Center for Constitutional Rights. One of the most illuminating studies is in Connecticut which showed racial disparities in traffic stops during the daytime, when the race of the driver can be seen, but not at night.

2. Police Searches

Once stopped, during traffic stops, 3 times as many Black and Hispanic drivers were searched as white drivers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. According to the same U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, white drivers were also given tickets at a slightly lower rate than Black and Hispanic drivers.

3. Police Use of Force During Arrest

A recent report by Center for Policing Equity found that police are more likely to use force like Tasers, dogs, pepper spray and physical force against Black people than White people in making arrests.

4. Juvenile Arrests

Black youth are twice as likely to be arrested for crimes in school as white kids, over 2.5 times as likely to be arrested for curfew violations as white kids, twice as likely as white kids to be arrested for all crimes, and much more likely to be held in detention than white kids, according to the Sentencing Project.
5. Arrests in the Transgender Community

Hundreds of thousands of gay and transgender youth are arrested or detained every year and more than 60 percent are Black or Latino, according to the Center for American Progress.

6. Arrests for Drugs

Start with the fact that whites and blacks use and abuse drugs at about the same rates. This is proven by the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This study found drug and alcohol abuse among whites and blacks nearly the same with blacks reporting one percent higher on drug use than whites while whites have three percent higher rates of binge alcohol and one percent higher rates of substance abuse or dependence.

But when it comes to drug arrests, Blacks are arrested at a rate more than twice their percentage in the population. Twenty nine percent of drug arrests, according to FBI statistics, are of African American people.

7. Police Arrests for Marijuana

While marijuana use is similar in black and white communities, blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana as whites.

8. Pre-Trial Release

The National Academy of Sciences found that blacks are more likely than whites to be incarcerated while awaiting trial.

9. Prosecution Charges

Federal prosecutors are almost twice as likely to file charges carrying mandatory minimum sentences for African Americans than whites accused of the same crimes, according to a study published by the University of Michigan Law School.
10. Prison vs. Community Service

The National Academy of Sciences stated that blacks are more likely than whites to received prison terms rather than community service. Black people are imprisoned at twice the rate of white people in the U.S., according to the US Department of Justice.

11. Length of Incarceration

The National Academy of Sciences stated that, after conviction, blacks are more likely than whites to receive longer sentences.

12. State Drug Incarceration

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports 208,000 people are in state prisons for drug offenses. Of this number, 32 percent are white and 68 percent are African American or Hispanic.

13. Federal Drug Convictions

More than half of all federal prisoners are there for drug offenses. The U.S. Sentencing Commission reported 25 percent of all federal drug convictions in 2014 were of African Americans and 47 percent were Hispanics versus 24 percent of whites. In federal prisons, 22 percent are white and 76 percent are African American or Hispanic.

14. Federal Court Sentencing

African American men were sentenced to 19 percent longer time periods in federal courts across the U.S. than white men convicted of similar crimes in a 4-year study conducted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

15. Incarceration of Women

Black women are incarcerated at a rate nearly 3 times higher than white women.

16. Sentencing to Life Without Parole

Over 65 percent of prisoners serving life without parole for nonviolent offenses are black.

17. Hiring People With Criminal Records

Having a criminal record hurts a person’s ability to get a job ― but it hurts black men worse. In fact, white men with a criminal record have a better chance of getting a positive response in a job search than black men without a criminal record. This has been confirmed by a study of 6,000 applications in Arizona and an earlier study in Milwaukee and New York City.

18. Eliminating the Right to Vote

The impact of this is devastating. For example, 1 out of every 13 African Americans has lost their right to vote due to felony disenfranchisement versus 1 in every 56 non-black voters.

Taken together, these facts demonstrate the deep racism embedded in the criminal legal system. None dare call this justice.

None dare call this justice. by Bill Quigley Racism may well be the biggest crime in the criminal legal system. If present trends continue, 1 of every 4 African American males born this decade can …

It sounds almost too twisted to be true: across Argentina and Uruguay, horse blood farms are raising horses so their blood can be extracted and sold for profit to pharmaceutical companies.

The horrendous industry is driven by demand from veterinary pharmaceutical companies like MSD Animal Health (Merck Animal Health in the US and Canada) that use the blood to extract a hormone called PMSG.

It’s unacceptable for a company that specializes in animal health to depend on the torture and exploitation of horses for its products. If hundreds of thousands of us around the world speak up and join the people who are already fighting this animal cruelty in South America and Europe, we can get MSD to stop their business with the torture-hormone.

Sign the petition to tell MSD to stop profiting from animal torture and cut ties with blood farms immediately.

Blood farm conditions are as bad as you’d imagine. Workers routinely take 10 litres of blood in a single extraction, a volume that can lead to hypovolemic shock, anaemia or even death. And because mares produce the valuable hormone only during early pregnancy, they are forced into repeated pregnancies and abortions. Finally, they are shipped off to slaughter when they become too weak or old to become pregnant.

In a cruelly ironic cycle of animal exploitation, the precious hormone PMSG obtained from pregnant mare blood is used by the pork industry to promote unnatural rates of reproduction among pigs.

A recent investigation by the German NGO Animal Welfare Foundation and their partners in Uruguay and the US exposed the links between American and European corporations like MSD and the blood farms. Now that we know that MSD is profiting from animal torture, we need to let them know that we’re on to them.